What are you known for, why do your customers support you?

Let’s take a step back and consider two well-known and two of
the few consistently profitable airlines – RyanAir and Singapore
Airlines. If you have flown with these two carriers you'll be struck at
how the same product
(in this case getting you safely from point A to point B) can be so
hugely different. Whilst a loyal Singapore Airline traveler would be
disgusted at everything they experienced with RyanAir, from the cramped
seating, the long walks and the abrupt service, your hardy RyanAir
traveler would be equally appalled at the price of a
Singapore fare and the pretentiousness of the brand. Singapore fits in
nicely with all our common sense. But what of RyanAir? How
can we reconcile these facts?

RyanAir is named as a worst-ranked brand year-in an year-out, based
on ease of
customer use of a company's products, services, interactions and
communications.

RyanAir carries more than 30 million more passengers than
its nearest competitor, Lufthansa at 50 million, and is yet again the
world's most profitable airline.

What are Singapore Airlines known for?
What's important to their customers?

Branding Message:

You are special and we are special,
we're the world's favorite airline. You love flying with us
so much you'll want to cut your vacation short just to be pampered in
the way you deserve. Nobody understands you quite like we do, we're not
for the masses, but for the discerning select few, to whom style,
elegance and sophistication are no stranger. To capture that
aspirational segment they “Make every customer feel at home when they
fly with us. This has always been the cornerstone of our service
philosophy." "Our customers’ preferences have always been the foremost
consideration in the duration process for our new products."

What are Ryan Air known for?
What's important to their customers?

Branding Message:

We have one and only one
way of doing business, no matter who you are. The frail and the bulky
(babies and prams) are not welcome, in fact we'll charge you more if we
think you're over-weight! if you want love and attention get a dog, our
business is about making air flight affordable and available. we carry
more passangers than anyone else, with a lower carbon footprint than
anyone else with fewer delays than any other airline. our pricing is
more transparent than any other airline. we think that's a
smallprice to pay for some operational efficiency and
occasional
abruptness.

Michael O'Leary is a no nonsense man who sets a very clear and
uncompromising
direction for the business and for its customers. he's the kind of man
who'll remind you that when taking time to pick sides, you
risk getting shot whilst sitting on the fence. His
is a business that has broken down the management of value drivers and
the
removal of value destroyers to an exact science. Watch how he
releases results to the market. He encapsulates everything that SAA
takes 172 pages to do in 4 key metrics compared with previous periods:

The
total number of passengers

The
Load Factor

The
Ave Fare per Traveler

The
Ave Revenue per Traveler

Only
one of these requires explanation: Load Factor, which is Production as
a % of Capacity, similar to occupancy in Hotels.
Behind these simple metrics lies well defined operational metrics. All
of these are available on a real-time basis (they have telemetry in the
airplanes as they fly!) Every SME can and indeed must do what RyanAir
does in terms of a few but excellent measures to track scalability,
efficiency and your value drivers. Here's what RyanAir use: Note, there
are not too many and they might look complicated but from a Value Tree
perspective they are really simple. in a similar manner an SME should
always have.

A unit measure of capacity - rooms, or training
hours or widgets

A unit measure of production - ZAR per room, ZAR per hour,
ZAR per widget, ZAR per employee

whilst
an individual sea6t yield wlll hjavge a wider range up to 30c/mile if a
ticket for a 500mile trip costs 78US, then the yield is 78US/500= 0.156
or 15.6c/mile

Revenue
per Available Seat Mile (R/ASM

the
measure of how much revenue we generate per increment of capacity

Multiply
load factor times yield to g

Cost
per Available Seat Mile (C/ASM):

much
it costs to fly one seat (empty or filled) one-mile.

.
To
calculate unit costs, divide total operating expenses by Total ASM
capacity

When you understand why your customers buy your products you
can
focus on what they need and what you must deliver with your very best
efforts, at the same time you can place less emphasise on those other
attributes you may have considered more important previously.

If you chose a customer intimacy model, perhaps because SMEs struggle with
price against the economies of scale of larger competitors, then be
very clear on what Customer Intimacy is and requires. A move
to customer intimacy should not be predicated on the harsh realisation
that you cannot compete on price. For an SME there still needs to be a
developed market for which you will meet some need other than
price. Here's a very generic example that allows you to
generate
discussion and get to a first cut of what might be required.

Competencies for your Brand

To
become a brand which is

you
will need to develop these competencies

which
require excellent delivery of these capabilities

Customer
Centric

Innovative
Solutions

Easily Accessible
Footprint with few barriers to purchase (KYC)

An ability to predict
changes and adapt & deploy quickly

Product Variety and
Differentiated Attributes/Features

Excellent Customer
Interface

Engaging,
Affable,Advisors able to build trust and esteem

Well spoken, intelligent
frontline, comfortable with all segments

Credible Product
Ambassadors supported by reliable back and middle offices

Deep Client
Insights

Clear differentiated
articulation of expressed and unexpressed needs

ability to connect product
to a deeper emotional need

Relationship Management
and a Sales Contact Strategy

Use different methods/representations to get people to
interact with the
team and to share their thoughts. Time invested to allow
different styles of thinking to participate is important, and don't
allow the quiet voice of wisdom or dissent to be drowned out. In these
workshops with various parts of the business it
should be
stressed that the more senior members have a duty not to
persuade
or convince but to make sure the difficult questions get asked, with
them doing more listening than they are used to.

This should generate some thought and is sufficient for the
moment, now we can cover the world of brand and emotional connections.